THE
tables are turning on the cops. Anuradha Prasad has gone a step ahead
of India’s Most Wanted with a new offering revolving around
human rights and police brutality.

Scene from Haqeeqat: Bringing cops to
book

Haqeeqat, Tuesdays
8.30 pm on Sahara TV is based on real life incidents of cop-related
violence against the common man. Presented by Mahesh Bhatt, these true
stories are dramatised versions based on actual incidents. These are
cases where the law instead of protecting the innocent has perpetrated
inhuman crimes against the victims.

While most of these
cases have been consigned to history, the trauma of the victims lives
on. The cases taken up range from child abuse, immoral traffic, dowry
deaths, domestic violence and several other crimes.

"We are not just
concentrating on big cities where sensational cases come to light
everyday. We are going into small towns and villages where it is easy
for the cops to suppress such incidents," says Prasad.

With their image
already dented how will the cops react to this show that is out to
expose their misdeeds? Only time will tell. But what’s important is
that they may start thinking twice before cracking the whip.

Here’s a family
plot that must find a place in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! There
are so many characters, sub-plots, so much confusion that the viewer
is going to get totally lost in the maze of Manzilen Apni Apni, weekdays
at 11 pm on Zee TV.

Scene from Manzilen Apni Apni: Chaotic storyline

Here’s a sampling.
Rahul and Ankush are cousins who run a flourishing business. Ankush
loves Priya. His sister Jaya is in love with a social worker, Shankar.
Her classmate Devbrat is also in love with Jaya. Rahul happens to meet
Priya and falls for her. Ankush goes to see a girl for Rahul. The
girl, Nanda, falls for Ankush. Rahul marries Priya and Ankush marries
Nanda.

Do they live happily
ever after? No, this is the time for more characters to enter the
serial. A mysterious woman enters the family, then follows the
paralysed grandfather of Rahul and Ankush and the couple of Smriti and
Deepak who keep wondering why they are in the serial.

Then there is the boy
named Prakash, who has been brought up by the family and a girl named
Shruti who earns the affection of the entire family.

But don’t go away
yet. Dozens of more characters are waiting in the wings for their cue.
Confused kya? If yes, then it may be time to move on!

Anderson gets
futuristic

As star of the X-Files
she’s built a cult following. Now Gillian Anderson steps out of the
spooky serial and into the future with a nine-part TV series that
reveals a breathtaking vision of the world of the future.

Anderson in Future Fantastic: Will fiction merge into
reality?

Future Fantastic on
Mondays 7 pm on BBC addresses issues like: Will children ever be born
on Mars? Will robots outsmart humans one day? And will it ever be
possible to teleport from one side of the world to the other?

All nine episodes
discuss how science fiction may soon become a reality. For example,
many scientists are coming to believe that direct contact could be
made with aliens any day now. Another episode tells us about new
computers being developed in Lausanne, Switzerland, that will have
power to grow, reproduce and even recover from injuries.

Then there’s the
inevitable question: Is it possible to travel in space and time. The
answer could be yes in the near future. But the ultimate in superfast
travel is teleportation. A classic feature of sci-fi literature, no
one ever thought it would be possible — until now. It would be
possible to teleport people and objects electronically as was done in Star
Wars. Impossible? Not really. Real life is now poised to imitate
science fiction!

Trinity on TV

Dheeraj Kumar has
surely hit upon a perpetual moneymaking machine with his religious
serials. At any given point in time chances are one of his godly
serials would be on the air on some channel or another.

Jap Tap Vratt: Tribute to Lord Vishnu

Now Star Plus which
has suddenly got hooked on to religious epics after Ma Shakti
has hired the talents of Dheeraj Kumar for another mythological Jap
Tap Vratt Sundays 9 a.m. — based on the life and times of Lords
Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.

But, it primarily
focuses on Lord Vishnu, who from time to time incarnates himself into
different avatars to destroy evil from the world. The
mythological also depicts tales and important incidents related to the
lives of the Hindu trinity —- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh with the
help of Jap (recitation of Mantras), Tap (penance and
religious austerity) and Vratt (religious vow).

Of birds & bees

The birds do it, the
bees do it, so do the butterflies. And we all have an eerily same way.
At first, the sexual behaviour of insects might seem strange, but a
closer look provides us with a view of how insects use the same old
techniques we do: searching for a soulmate, eliminating
competition, seducing the partner and concluding with the mating
itself.

Insectia: Mating Game: Aping
humans

Insectia:
Mating Game on June
17, 7.30 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel shows how close
insects are to humans when it comes to mating. Butterflies warm up to
the flame of love, cicadas serenade and male spiders often offer food
to their females.

Mating is sometimes
tender (butterflies), sometimes sadomasochistic (praying-mantis) and
sometimes—as in the case of goliath beetles who embrace for days
before mating—downright idiotic!

But any which way, it
is always fascinating. Watching this absorbing programme for more
information.

Lion King

Ever seen the world
from the animal’s point of view? Here’s your chance to do just
that and understand just how the lions perceive their world.

Animal World: Lions: Wild
questions

Animal World: Lions on
June 20 at 10 p.m. brings an extraordinary new perspective to the
enduring fascination with the king of the wild.

Find out answers to
surprising questions like why lions are not the skilled hunters they’re
made out to be? How does their remarkable flair for arithmetic help
them to protect their territory?

How can lions eat
around 25 kg of meat in one sitting? Why a lion sleeps for over 19
hours every single day? Or what strange power makes them see around
six times better in the dark than humans can. An unputdownable show
from start to finish.